Hot Rods Is This a Norm Grabowski Skull Shifter?

I know nothing much about these ghoulish sculptures but being Norm was doing Hotrod and Art pretty much into his last days here on earth perhaps he evolved into more modern adaptations of these to fit modern button shifters as you have shown. Those buttons shifters have been around for quite some time...

Perhaps he ran out of his more polished signature buttons and made a lesser one and with age and method his signatures became more shaky as well...

Not trying to sell fakes, which if they are it's disgusting to say the least but verifying them is key, are there family and/or people who hung with Norm that could help?

Sellers making typos is nothing new and is not at all a sign that things are fake...more a sign of education really...the Hotrod/Custom crowd isn't based on Graduates in English by a long shot...

 

I value Morairity's (and others) opinions here, and I can see why there is skepticism, but I believe if you could hold it and inspect it in person you would come to a diff conclusion. It's much more believable in person than the pic's let on. And no I will not send it to anyone to fondle! Actually, that gives me an idea I could sent it off to the FBI lab and have it checked for Norms DNA.........................

 

He built a Henway truck. Where`s the crown Royal bag. That`s what the skulls came in. Not a box.

 

No bullet no bag the plot thickens!

 

I 'm pretty sure a friend of mine owns this car now. Hard to tell from pic but is it dark blue? If so, it resides in Sequim, WA.

 

Dark blue, removable hardtop, polished QC, nicely built roadster, I know the car well, just trying to put some dots together on the origin of the Norm Knob which is not with the roadster anymore.

 

Norm moved to Lead Hill, Arkansas in 1972 (He was 39). His "Henway" was featured on the cover of the March 1974 issue of Rod & Custom magazine. He was in Arkansas for 40 years.

 

The original shift knob in Kookie II looks very similar to OP's knob

 

Sure does! And that looks like a Lokar shifter too. I looked over that car pretty close one year at LARS and I’m pretty sure it had an auto trans.

 

Soooo..... was the kookie knob a norms ?

Looks pretty close..

 

Serving crow to all you naysayer's @ 5, would you like it barbequed? To all that had something relevant to post thank you!

 

https://www.hhlohmeyer.com/memorial...w-a-condolence.php?RegisterBookItemId=4289325

In addition to Arkie's pics...
This pic was shared in Norms memorial...RIP Norm

@brigrat wouldn't that be something if it was from Kookie ll...I see he had another knob on it in other pics...the only thing that catches my eye is the badge on the back in Kookie ll is a bright color where yours is dark with gold text...he probably made a series of dark skulls...still quite a neat bit of Car Culture without a doubt...

Credit to Photographer, Owner
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So if the box is rite and there were 3 made, Jeff has one, there's one on Kookie ll and the one in my possession? The one on the Kookie ll has a lighter shade button on top than the one I posted.
Maybe they're like the Cristal Skulls, you get them altogether in one place and something magical happens!

 

They're all valuable but the last ones he made are in a way the end of a legacy...

 

Time for it to come out of the closet! The owner brought it to me to build a display piece out of it, you know a stand of some sort, a shift rod and the skull on top. Will probably use a piece of stainless rod for shift rod, bent into a "S" (swan) shape, than polish. Open to any ideas on a stand!

 

http://www.normsnews.com/Skulls.html

...since we're talking Norm Skulls here is a site no doubt by someone who may be a member here or be known by with some history worth having a peek at...

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Great tribute, Jeff.

 

Thanks Jeff for all your info & insight! Thanks to the power of the HAMB mystery solved in 2 pages, delete the "garbage" and it might have been one page!
Does Kookie ll still exist and if so who owns it? Thanks again!

 

I believe the Kookie II and the big blue box van used to transport it still belong to the Norm's family, as far as I know.

 

That’s an awesome piece to have.

 

@Jeff Norwell I believe that to be true as well.

 

Jeff solves the mystery!!

 

X2. Snowman ⛄️

 

I love it, the thread and the skull.

 

Funny me finding this thread as we were just talking about "Norm" yesterday. I remember the first time I met him. I was at Pete and Jakes picking up some customer parts and he was there visting with Jerry and Jason. Norm asked what I was working on and we hit it off immediately. He had just started building his big Truck with the tree trunk front bumper. Jeff is right about him being able to make you laugh as we Laughed and Joked the whole time I was there. He was driving a little smart car at the time and I remember thinking how funny it was that the Man who created the "T" Bucket was rolling around in a tiny smart car. Goodtimes

 

Merry Christmas!

 

The one in Kookie II has a bullet in the back of it. Why doesn’t the one in question have one?